


secrets dont make friends

by 3YearsOfPaperShades



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Gen, excessive crafting, probably a bad coping mechanism but what can you do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 08:15:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17504948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3YearsOfPaperShades/pseuds/3YearsOfPaperShades
Summary: Mitch has a secret. It’s not a huge, life changing secret, but it’s a secret nonetheless.Mitch knits.Scarfs, hats, socks, the occasional sweater. Once he knitted a blanket.It didn’t start out as a thing exactly, but it pretty quickly turned into one.





	secrets dont make friends

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work of fiction. 
> 
> As far as I know the events depicted here did not actually take place and this is not based on true events. As far as I know, Mitch Marner does not spend his free time knitting. 
> 
> If you personally know the people in this story please click away now.

Mitch has a secret. It’s not a huge, life changing secret, but it’s a secret nonetheless. 

Mitch knits.

Scarfs, hats, socks, the occasional sweater. Once he knitted a blanket.

It didn’t start out as a thing exactly, but it pretty quickly turned into one. 

******

For as long as he could remember, Mitch always had too much energy to be completely satisfied by one thing, even if that one thing was as great as hockey. Growing up, he had school to take up his time away from the rink, and if he didn’t have school he had teammates and road games and billet families to keep him occupied.

His rookie year with the Leafs was exciting and amazing and it truly felt like he was living in a dream, but more than any of that it was utterly exhausting. He had no time for anything but hockey. When the team got knocked out of the playoffs in round one, much further than anyone expected them to make it, he went home to his parents’ house and slept for three days. 

******

He had been home with his family for a week and a half when he really started to grow restless. With a forced break from hockey, he was bored out of his mind. The minimal training he was allowed to do this early in the offseason could only take up so much of his time, and while he loved seeing his family, after a few weeks of nothing but hanging out with them and playing video games, he thought he might die of boredom.

He knew his mom had noticed because she kept making him go grocery shopping with her just so he would have something to do. 

“You need a hobby.” She had told him on a Tuesday afternoon after he had thrown himself onto the couch next to where she was knitting a shawl and complained loudly about being bored.

“I have hockey.” He had answered, only to get an unimpressed glance in return. 

“Hockey is your career honey, not a hobby. You need something to occupy your brain during the summer, something you enjoy.” 

When he informed her that he enjoyed playing video games, and therefore already had a hobby, she had set down her yarn and needles to level him with a look. 

“You need a more creative outlet. Something other than looking at a screen and shooting things all day.” 

The argument that followed was short and ended with him holding his own set of knitting needles while his mom showed him how to cast on and how to complete a basic stitch. 

To his utmost surprise, Mitch loved knitting. He had always been full of energy and constantly felt the need to do something with his hands. It turned out that knitting was perfect for this. Once he got the basic stitch down, it was like he didn’t even have to think about what his hands were doing. While he watched movies tucked up in bed, he knitted. When he rode in the car with his mom to run her errands, he knitted. When he talked to Auston and Marty on the phone about their summers and plans for the new season, he knitted.

Surprisingly, or maybe not, he quickly became obsessed with knitting. He drug his mom with him to as many craft stores as he could and bought so much yarn and different types of needles that he had a whole corner of his room devoted to his, frankly gigantic, pile of supplies. He spent his nights watching youtube videos to learn new stitches and downloading patterns from many different websites. He got to the point where he could watch an entire tv show and knit without looking down at his hands once.

******

By the time the summer was over and he had to leave for training camp, he had supplied each of his immediate family members with multiple scarves, 4 pairs of socks, and 3 hats each. The house had a lovely new blue and white blanket that was folded over the downstairs couch, as well as some new potholders. He had even attempted to make the dog a sweater but the less said about that attempt the better. 

******

When he packed up his things for the short drive back to his apartment in the city, he had a whole suitcase full of knitting supplies, not to mention an extra tote bag full of needles.  
It was probably a bit excessive. But hey, Mitch was an NHL player making millions. What else was he supposed to do with his money? The answer to that question, according to one very biased source, was to buy his brother a fancy car. Mitch was considering it for a birthday present. 

*****

It was the start of his second season in the NHL. Mitch wasn’t exactly nervous per se, but he could admit that he was a bit on edge. He’d heard all about sophomore slumps and wanted to do all he could to avoid adding his name to that list. 

So maybe he was a little bit nervous. 

The solution to his anxiety was obviously to channel it into knitting.

*****

He started knitting a Leafs blanket the day before training camp began.

*****

For some reason, before he could even make a conscious decision on the matter, he was keeping his new hobby a secret from the team. It wasn't something he had planned to do and he didn’t even realize that he cared about the team knowing until the first time Auston followed him up to his apartment after their third day of camp and he found himself silently praying that he had closed the door to his bedroom and that he hadn't left his current project on the couch. 

When it turned out that there was no evidence lying about Mitch closed his eyes and said a prayer of thanks to the hockey gods until Auston tapped him on the shoulder and asked if he was alright. 

He assured him he was fine, but after thinking about it for a second he decided that he definitely wasn't telling anyone on the team about his new knitting habit. 

*****

He finished the Leafs blanket the night training camp ended.

*****

The season only progressed from there. He couldn't bring any of his projects on the road as he didn’t want to risk them getting discovered, so he stuck to obsessively knitting at home. With less time for him to work out his anxieties through knitting and with the growing exhaustion that was hockey season, he was a bit on edge. It definitely didn’t help that his season wasn't going great. He was struggling to score goals and had been occasionally demoted to the fourth line. Sure it was great to play with Marty, but it didn’t help to build his confidence in his own abilities at all. 

*****

All of this came to a head on the next four day break the Leafs had. Outside of mandatory practices and meetings, which he showed up to just on the edge of being late and left as soon as he could without getting yelled at, Mitch locked himself in his apartment. He couldn’t bring himself to actually cook anything so he ordered food from the Thai place down the road three times in two days. He spent his self-imposed exile catching up on TV shows, talking to his Mom, and knitting. There was lots of knitting. 

He hadn't even realized how much he had shut himself off from the rest of the world until the day before the Leafs’ next game. Mitch was curled up on his couch, Game Of Thrones playing on the tv, in the process of knitting a scarf with a Maple Leafs pattern for his younger cousin’s birthday when someone knocked on his door. He looked up. His first thought was that food was being delivered, but he was 90 percent sure he hadn't ordered anything as there were already empty takeout containers from his lunch, and those from last night’s dinner, on the coffee table in front of him. 

When the person at the door continued to knock, Mitch stood up. Before he reached the door though, he glanced around him at his living room which was in perfect view of whoever had come to visit. He had knitting supplies strewn about everywhere not to mention the trash from his latest meals scattered about. It was a mess. 

The person at the door knocked a third time, but this time it was accompanied by a “Open the door Marns, you asshole.” Which, yah, that was Auston. 

“Shit.” Mitch muttered under his breath and glanced around frantically for a way to hide all of his stuff. 

“I know you're home, Snap Map says you were here five minutes ago.” Auston continued. And yah, that one was probably Mitch’s fault, he should have turned on ghost mode or whatever it was called. With no possible way to clean his apartment before Auston broke down the door, Mitch gave up and went to open it. 

“Hey, sorry I was…” He shrugged, unable to come up with an excuse. The door was opened just a crack and Mitch was using his body to block the opening as best as he could. 

“So I was wondering if you wanted to…” Auston trailed off and narrowed his eyes in confusion at how Mitch was standing. “What’re you doing?” 

Mitch opened his mouth but for one of the first times in his life, he couldn’t think of anything to say. 

“What’s going on?” Auston was looking at him suspiciously.

“Nothing!” Mitch said much too quickly. “I mean. I’m not. There’s nothing. I’m not doing anything. Why?” 

Auston raised an eyebrow. “That was real convincing Mitchy.” 

Auston suddenly leaned forward to try and get a look into the apartment and Mitch panicked, slamming the door directly into Auston’s face. 

Mitch took a deep breath trying to convince himself to stay calm before opening the door back up to a shocked looking Auston who was rubbing his nose.

“Ow.” 

“Sorry.” Mitch mumbled. “That was…sorry.”

Auston shook his head, “Jesus Mitch do you have a girl over or something?” 

And…that…Mitch could work with that. 

He bit his lip. “Maybe?” He said slowly.

And honestly what the hell was he doing? He didn’t have a girl over. He had knitting over. Well not over. Cause knitting wasn't a person, but either way, not a girl. 

“Is that why you've been bailing on us so quickly after practice? You haven’t hung out with the team all week, everyone was getting worried.”

Oops. Mitch thought to himself. He hadn't meant to make anyone worried, he just needed a bit of time by himself to freak out about his life.  
“I - uh - yes?” He didn’t sound very confident he knew. He didn’t want to lie to one of his best friends, but he also was not prepared to tell him about the knitting or the partial mental break down he was going through. “It’s not anything serious though.” Mitch said as an attempt at damage control. 

“Not serious?” Auston snorted, “You’ve been spending all your time with her how casual can it be?”  
Mitch grimaced. He was not doing a good job of selling this. 

“So where is she? Can I meet her? What’s her name?” Auston was attempting to peer over his shoulder again while asking rapid fire questions and Mitch was completely unprepared. 

“Her name is…” Mitch frantically searched is mind for a name of a girl neither of them actually knew. “…Emilia?” Mitch settled on, after running through the names of the actresses in Game of Thrones. 

“And no you can't meet her.” He said, remembering the other part of Auston’s questions. “She’s on the phone right now.” 

On the phone? What was he thinking? He should have said she was naked or something. That would have been a better excuse.

Auston looked skeptical. “If you say so…” He trailed off looking confused before seemingly snapping himself out of it. “Anyway, I dropped by to see if you wanted to go out to dinner with some of the guys but you seem to be busy, so unless Emilia wants to come too…” 

He trailed off obviously waiting for Mitch to say that he’d totally bring his imaginary girlfriend who he just made up to hide the fact that he’s basically an old lady that knits, out to dinner with his teammates. 

Instead, Mitch took the out. “Nah man, we’ve got plans tonight already.”

Auston nodded slowly, “Next time then.” 

“Sure thing.” Mitch attempted a smile, but he was pretty sure it came across more as a grimace. 

“Well, I’ll see at the rink tomorrow?” Austin phrased it as a question. As if Mitch would miss a game. He wasn't that much of a mess.

“Yah, man. Totally. See you then.” Mitch then proceeded to shut the door in Auston’s face. Though he made sure to do so slower this time. 

That was a close call.

****** 

I’ve got plans with Emilia quickly became Mitch’s go to excuse when he wanted to stay home and knit. 

Which currently was pretty often as he was in the middle of a huge project. His parents’ anniversary was coming up and he had decided to knit them a new quilt for their bed. Turns out a quilt for a king sized bed was bigger than Mitch had anticipated and so this project was taking much longer than he had originally thought. With their anniversary only two weeks away and a five day road trip taking up almost half of that, he was in a real time crunch. 

******

By the time the road trip rolled around, he wasn't anywhere close to being done with the quilt which meant he was more stressed than usual. Mitch knew realistically that his parents wouldn’t care if he gave them their gift a few days late, but that felt too much like failure and he really couldn’t take any more of that in his life right now. He had a serious decision to make. Should he bring his project on the road and take the risk of exposing his hobby to Auston and therefore most likely the rest of the team, or leave it home and accept defeat? 

If there was one thing Mitch had never been good at it was giving up, and unfortunately for his privacy that wasn't about to change. 

*****

It was the first night of the road trip and Mitch felt like his knitting was burning a hole in his suitcase. He couldn’t help but look up from his laptop every few minutes to stare at his bag tucked away in the corner, before looking over at Auston who was absorbed with something on his phone. Mitch wished he could be using this time to work on the quilt, but Auston was still awake in the other bed. If only he would go to sleep, then Mitch could get his project out and finally get some work done. He figured he should be able to knit in the dark and if he needed light he could always go sit in the bathroom. 

It was a little after midnight before Auston turned off his phone and rolled over to plug it in and place it on the nightstand. 

“Night Marns,” He said as he switched out his lamp and rolled over. 

Finally. 

“Night,” Mitch responded, leaning over to turn out his own lamp so he was left in just the light of his computer screen. 

Now he just had to wait. He tried to think through how long it usually took Auston to fall asleep, but that was difficult since Mitch typically fell asleep before him. 

After another 30 minutes of Auston not moving, Mitch deemed it safe enough to get up. Grabbing his phone and turning the screen brightness up to act as a light, Mitch crept across the room and to his suitcase. He opened the bag as quietly as he could and pulled out his project, buried at the bottom. He had had to sacrifice some of the space he usually devoted to clothes to make room for the quilt, but if he had to re-wear things a few times hopefully no one would notice. 

Mitch quietly made his way back to his bed and settled down to work. He quickly ran into a problem. With the blackout curtains drawn across the windows, Mitch couldn’t see a thing. He tried turning on his phone screen to provide a low light, but it kept switching off and wasn't much help anyway. 

He finally gave up on knitting in the bed and made his way into the bathroom. After assessing his options, he ended up climbing into the tub, thanking the hockey gods that both he and Auston preferred to take their showers in the morning or at the rink, and settled in to knit.

This was thankfully much more productive and Mitch was able to make a sizable amount of progress before he got too tired and didn’t want to risk making a mistake. After putting his work away and climbing back into bed, Mitch immediately fell asleep. 

*****

He continued this routine for the next two nights. 

******

On the fourth and final night of the road trip, Mitch was exhausted. The Leafs had just lost a hard fought game and he could barely keep his eyes open on the bus ride back to the hotel. It certainly wasn't helping his game that he hadn't been sleeping nearly as much as he should have, devoting a lot of his time to knitting and a lot more waiting for Auston to fall asleep. 

But it had paid off, the quilt was coming along nicely, and if he continued at this pace Mitch thought he should be able to finish just in time for his parents’ anniversary. To meet his deadline though, he couldn’t slack off. 

This meant that at 1 am when Auston finally rolled over and turned out his light, Mitch was struggling to stay awake. After waiting his usual thirty minutes for Auston to fall asleep, Mitch drug himself out of bed and into the bathroom tub to knit. 

As he sat laid the tub knitting, a towel rolled up behind his head to make it more comfortable, Mitch found it harder and harder to stay awake. He knew he had to at least finish the row he was on, but his resolve somehow faded into him closing his eyes for what he swore would be just a minute. 

*****

“What the actual fuck, Mitch?” 

Mitch jolted awake, whacking his foot against the faucet. 

“Ow. Shit.” Mitch exclaimed reaching for his leg. When he tried to move his hands though, he found that they were tangled up in — his knitting?

Mitch looked around him in confusion before his eyes finally settled on Auston staring down at him, sleep rumpled and confused. 

Fuck. 

Mitch opened his mouth, brain scrambling for some kind of explanation as to why he was asleep in the bathtub surrounded by yarn. 

“I can explain…?” He ventured slowly, still not quite sure that he could. 

“Yah an explanation as to why you're sleeping in the tub with — what, a half shredded blanket? — would be great.” 

“I…uh…” Mitch trailed off. He wasn't gonna get out of this one, and even Mitch knew when he was beaten. 

Auston was still staring down at him disgruntled and confused. 

Mitch took a deep breath. 

“First of all,” He started. “It’s not a half shredded blanket. It’s not a half shredded anything. It’s a blanket that I’m giving to my parents for their anniversary next week.”

Auston blinked. “I still don’t understand why you're in the tub with your parents’ anniversary gift.” 

“I…” Mitch steeled himself for whatever chirping would inevitably come from this. “I needed to work on finishing it and I didn’t want to wake you up.” 

“Work on finishing it?” Auston questioned, squinting and looking closer at the quilt. 

Mitch stayed silent. 

“You…you made this?”

Mitch gulped. “Yah?” 

“Like you actually made this? What with knitting needles and shit? You didn’t just buy it off Etsy or something?” 

“Yes, I actually made it.” Mitch shot back, indignant that Auston didn’t think he was capable of this feat. “It’s taken me forever and I’ve sacrificed so much sleep for this. Of course I actually made it.” 

Auston rubbed at his eyes. Mitch realized he had absolutely no idea what time it was. 

“I still don’t get why you're in the tub…” Auston grumbled. 

“ I needed light.” Mitch said shortly as he began trying to sort through the tangled yarn on his lap. 

“…okay…” Auston continued to stare at him while Mitch struggled through organizing his yarn and praying he hadn't lost a stitch or worse had several rows unravel. 

There was silence for a few more seconds before Auston spoke again. 

“Sorry, but I still don’t understand why you're in here at 3am and not sleeping.” 

Well, at least he knew the time now. 

“My parents anniversary is in a few days and I need to get this done.” 

“Yah but why are you working on it now? You were laying in bed on your phone for hours. I haven’t seen you work on it the whole trip.”

“Yah cause I’ve been working on it in here.” Mitch grumbled, finally untangling the last of the unraveled yarn and beginning to wind it back up. 

“What every night?” Auston seemed shocked. 

“Yep.” Mitch responded not looking up. 

“Even with all of the games we've had?” Auston exclaimed. 

Mitch shrugged. 

“Well, it’s no wonder you’ve seemed tired. I thought you've seemed slower on the ice last night.” 

Mitch glanced up sharply. “What?” 

Auston looked down at him and blinked. “Hm?” He made a questioning noise. “I just meant that I thought you seemed tired.”

“Are you saying that I haven’t been playing well?”

“No.” Auston exclaimed. “I’m just saying maybe this,” He gestured at the blanket, “could be a contributing factor to you being tired.” 

“And that isn't you saying I played like shit? Because of this? Are you saying that the loss tonight was my fault too?” Mitch raised his voice more with every word. 

“Marns no, I didn’t mean that. I just—” 

“Cause you might as well just come out and say it. I know I didn’t play the best last night. Believe me, I don’t need you to tell me. But don’t beat around the bush. If you think I lost us the game just say it.” He huffed out a breath and glared up at Auston from where he was still sitting in the tub. 

The silence stretched on until Auston said, “Jesus, Mitchy.” He ran a hand though his hair and walked over to the toilet, closed the lid, and sat down. 

Mitch stayed silent. 

“First of all, I didn’t mean to imply you lost us the game. Cause you didn’t. I did mean to say that you’ve seemed more tired lately. And it’s probably because you've been knitting in our tub until god knows when. Speaking of, please explain to me why you have to do this in the dead of night? Am I too distracting for you to work during the day?” 

Mitch sighed. He was just so tired. 

“No. It’s not that you're distracting. I…I just.” He took a deep breath. “I thought you would think it was dumb or something. I don’t know. I haven’t really told anyone.” 

He looked up at Auston who looked, well Mitch wasn't 100 percent sure how he looked. Some combination of confused, worried, and really tired. 

Auston opened his mouth. “Look Mitch. I wouldn’t chirp you for something you enjoy doing. At least not very seriously. And I mean obviously you're pretty good at knitting or whatever it is you do, and that’s impressive in and of itself.”

Mitch felt himself relax a little at that before Auston continued, “Though I also think that hockey comes first and you need to be getting more sleep. You can’t stay up doing this,” he gestured to Mitch and the whole bathtub situation, “every night. It’s not healthy.” 

Mitch shrugged, “Yah. I know.” He honestly had no more energy for fighting with Auston. At this point, he just really wanted to sleep. 

Auston sighed. “Come on, you should go to sleep. In an actual bed this time.” He stood up and offered Mitch a hand. 

After climbing out of the tub and putting his knitting back in his bag, Mitch collapsed into bed. 

He heard the toilet flush and Auston came out of the bathroom a few seconds later, turning out the light behind him and getting in his own bed. 

There was silence in the room for a few minutes before Mitch, on the verge of sleep said quietly, “Aus, Emilia isn't real.” 

“What?” Auston whispered back. 

“I just made her up so I could knit without you guys being suspicious.” Mitch mumbled half into his pillow. 

There was another beat of silence. 

“Mitch Marner you're an absolute fucking idiot…Go to sleep.” 

So he did. 

*****

Mitch finished his parent’s quilt the morning of their anniversary. 

*****

It was nearing the end of his second season in the NHL. The Leafs had successfully secured a playoff spot and Mitch had long since gotten out of his slump. 

It was around 6pm and Mitch was sitting on his couch knitting a sock. He had accidentally gotten sucked into some stupid reality show that was playing on the tv. 

A knock on the door startled him from where he was staring intently waiting to see if Josh would finally ask out Annamarie. 

“Hang on.” He called out, slowly getting off the couch and setting down the half made sock, still intently watching the screen. 

A second round of knocked echoed through the room. 

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” He grumbled going over to open the door. 

Auston stood on the other side looking grumpy at having to wait. “Are you ready to go or what? Some of the guys are already at the restaurant.” 

Mitch rolled his eyes. “Yah, yah. Come in for a sec while I get my stuff together.” 

“I told you to be ready at 5:45.”

“But I knew you wouldn’t be here until 6.” Mitch grinned at him over his shoulder as he walked back over to the couch to turn off the tv and find his wallet. 

“Well it’s 6 and you still aren't ready.” Auston grumbled. 

Mitch lifted up the sock he was working on. “Do you think this is big enough for Babs' foot?” He turned it around a few times trying to imagine their coach’s feet, which was something he had never imagined himself doing.

“Are you actually going to give him socks? I thought that was just a joke?” Auston looked surprised. 

“Of course I’m going to give him socks. I’m giving all the guys stuff and it would be rude if he was the only one I didn’t give an end-of-the-season-gift to.” 

“You know no one else gives end of the season gifts, right?” 

Mitch decided to ignore him. It wasn't his fault everyone else was less awesome than him. “I didn’t get measurements of him like I got for the rest of the guys so I’m mostly just guessing. Hyms thinks that I should steal one of his socks and measure that, but that seems a bit too weird.” 

“Yah maybe don’t do that.” Auston agreed before walking over to take a closer look at the sock. “It looks alright to me. His foot can’t be that much different than ours and that looks like it would fit me.” 

Mitch grinned, “Okay, good. I would've hated to have to start again.” He turned suddenly to face Auston. “Do you want to see the hat I made Freddie yesterday?” 

“No. We have a dinner to go to.” Auston said, seeming to remember he was there for a reason. 

“You're no fun,” Mitch grumbled but he put down the sock and grabbed his wallet and house keys. “Come on then.” He said as he headed toward the door. 

He could almost hear Auston roll his eyes as he followed him out. 

*****

Mitch has been obsessed with hockey since before he can remember and by some combination of hard-work and good-luck, he gets to play the game he loves professionally. People say he’s not too bad at it.

Mitch also knits. 

Turns out he’s pretty good at that too. He makes plenty of scarfs, hats, and socks, the majority of which he donates to a charity he started with his teammate Auston Matthews, who, as it turns out, isn’t too bad at knitting either. 

When he was younger Mitch would have never thought knitting would become one of his things, but now that it is, he can’t imagine his life without it.

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in the '17-'18 season but it doesn't actually follow the Leafs real schedule. I have no idea if they had a four day break that was followed by a five day road trip or any of that stuff. I basically just made up a schedule that fit what I needed it to. Also in this story Mitch doesn't have a girlfriend. While his real life girlfriend is lovely, in this story knitting takes up all his time and he has yet to find love.
> 
> Anyway, I've been writing this on and off for literally over a year and I finally got the motivation to finish it so I hope you enjoyed. Feel free to leave a comment, I love chatting.


End file.
